My car is rubbish and fit only for the scrapheap, rages Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton claimed the only place for his £100million McLaren car is on the scrapheap after his world championship defence took another humiliating turn in qualifying for today’s Turkish Grand Prix.

Where do I go from here? Lewis Hamilton is puzzled

As Brawn GP’s Jenson Button claimed second place on the grid behind Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull, Hamilton was already back in the paddock and resigned to starting from 16th after being let down by a car described yesterday as ‘possibly the worst’ theteam have ever produced.

‘Welcome to my world,’ he sighed after failing to make it out of the first qualifying session. ‘It’s the car — it was a disaster. We probably should have scrapped it a long time ago. We will have to bounce back next year.’

Hamilton had two flying laps to try to wrestle his way into the top 15 and the second qualifying session, but fell fourhundredths of a second short of Adrian Sutil’s Force India, bringing his dismal afternoon to a premature end.

Hamilton’s wretched season, which has yielded just nine points from six races, brings into question how McLaren progress. Major technical improvements are scheduled for the German Grand Prix on July 12, but before then comes the British Grand Prix a fortnight today, where McLaren will be desperate to avoid further embarrassment in front of home fans.

One person who knows what it is like to be flogging a sub-standard car is Button, who endured torrid times at Honda. But the Briton believes the pressure of being at the back of the pack is nothing compared with what he is facing now.

Worthless junk: The car Lewis Hamilton feels should have been scrapped

'He leads the standings by 16 points from team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who starts third. Vettel is third in the championship, 28 points adrift. Button said: ‘Michael Schumacher won seven world championships and I understand why he retired. I’m sure it must have been the most stressful time of his life. It sounds stupid but, withbeing at the front, there is so much to play for. But I’m happy with it. It’s goodstress.’

Button, seeking his sixth win from seven starts, finished a tenth of a second off the pace, though that was a turnaround after struggling through Friday’s practice.